Will parked Greg’s car alongside of Lauren’s house and they got out.
The party was still pretty wild. Surprisingly no cops had showed up yet.
Inside, everyone welcomed Lauren back to her party, and Will began to look for Starr.
There she was, drinking a bottle of whiskey on the couch.
Will walked up to her and sat down. “What’s up?”
“Oh, just chillin, havin a good time, and drinkin my whiskey,” she replied. “You?”
“Well, no offense or anything, but do you know anything about this?” asked Will, holding out the Book of the Underground in front of her.
The girl set her bottle of whiskey down on the table. “Well, let’s take a look,” she replied, examining the creepy cover of the book.
Slowly, she opened the book to a random page. Dultona’s throne.
She then paged through the book, next stopping at the Awakening chant. “This looks like some pretty dark stuff,” she commented. “I’ve never seen anything like this, Will, where did you get it?”
“We found it in the town library, and I know this may sound crazy but my best friend is missing because of this book. And there is an army of evil zombies out there that will take over the entire town and even crash the party if we don’t hurry.”
“Really?” she replied.
“Really. Do you think you can help?”
“Well, I only live a couple houses away from here, let’s go.”
About a block away, Will, Lauren and Starr arrived at Starr’s house, a big tan-colored house covered in tall trees. It looked old and possibly haunted.
They soon entered Starr’s bedroom. Band posters and pictures of witches and pentagrams covered her walls, and multiple jars of what appeared to be herbs stood atop of random black shelves. Black bedsheets covered her bed, and next to her bedroom television was an electric guitar, a black flying V. The perfect bedroom for a gothic rocker-type girl like Starr.
In the corner of the bedroom was a small black table with unlit candles.
“Have a seat,” she told them.
Will and Lauren took a seat.
She then went and grabbed what appeared to be salt from a glass and poured it out around the table, circling it, then took a seat herself. “Can I see the book?” she asked Will.
He handed her the Book of the Underground and she carefully placed it in the center of the table.
She then pulled out a lighter and lit the four white candles that were placed around the table. “Will, would you hit the lights, please?” she asked him, pointing to the switch next to him.
“What?” Lauren freaked.
“Really?” responded Will to Lauren.
“I ain’t afraid of no boogeyman.”
Starr cleared her throat, getting serious rather than laughing with Will. “Spells seem to work better with the lights off,” she said. “You want me to help, right?”
Will then cleared his throat as well and Lauren still looked a little nervous.
“Alright, let’s do this,” said Will as he turned the lights off.
They were now sitting around a candle-lit table in the dark, the Book of the Underground in the center.
“Alright, we need to hold hands,” ordered Starr, holding her hands out for Will and Lauren. Will held his hands out and locked hands with Starr. Lauren just sat there, refusing.
“Hold hands,” repeated Starr to Lauren. Lauren nervously held her hands out to lock hands with Will and Starr.
“Okay, now I’m going to recite something that will ward us from evil spirits. It usually works for most people, alright?”
“Okay,” replied Will.
“Okay,” replied Lauren nervously.
Starr then cleared her throat then recited something about bringing in the good spirits and leaving out the bad ones.
“Alright, we can let go of hands now for a minute. Let’s see what I can find in this book that will give us the power to find Charlie.”
“Alright, well I’m ready,” said Will.
Starr then began to page through the book. As she did, she stared in fascination at all of the dark pictures, pictures of demons, dragons, giants, witches, undead, then places of challenges, deaths, kings, and finally a section of powers, spells, and dark magic.
Lauren shook nervously as Starr paged through the book. Will stared in fascination with her.
“Here we go,” said Starr, stopping on a page. “The Power of Victor.”
“Who?” responded Will.
The page showed a powerful man holding a giant sword in the air, a grayish one-eyed beast risen up over him, his sword stuck through the monster, and blood dripping down his sword. Around him were multiple dead beasts, a blood pool around them.
On the top of the page was the title “The Power of Victor”. At the bottom of the page was a description and strange writing. A chant.
“It says here that Victor was a god who had gained an invincible power that provided him with the strength to defeat hundreds of beasts in the Underground, and after he died he left his power to be shared with whoever summons it from him,” said Starr after looking over the description.
Will’s eyes went big. “You mean it’s saying... we’re going to get invincible powers?”
“That’s what it’s saying... in a way,” replied Starr. “You know, I’ve never really seen anything like this before, honestly.”
“Then, just be careful, we don’t need any more zombies coming after us.”
Lauren swallowed her breath.
“So you’re telling me that there really is an army of undead out there and the reason Charlie’s missing is because of this book?” questioned Starr again, this time with even more belief.
“Yes,” replied Will. “So you better tell me right now that you know what you’re doing before you mess with this stuff, because I’m telling you... I ain’t runnin no more!”
“You can trust me,” she replied very seriously. “You ready?” She looked over at Lauren, who was still shaking. “You’ve been awfully quiet, Lauren, you ready?”
“Mhm,” she replied nervously.
Starr then cleared her throat again. “Alright, we’ll need to lock hands again.”
They all placed their hands on the table around the book and locked them again, Lauren being the last.
“Now the calmer you are, the more efficient this will work,” said Starr. “This is very serious, okay? So we all need to stay calm, alright, Lauren?”
Lauren still looked frightened, in shock. “Mhm,” she replied again.
“See here, it says ‘remain calm then recite these words’, okay?” Starr showed her the book, the picture actually making Lauren more nervous.
“Okay, well I’ll try,” replied Lauren, still shaking.
“Just stay calm, Lauren,” Will told her as well.
“I said I’ll try!”
He shut up.
“Okay, here we go,” said Starr, clearing her throat one last time as she prepared to read the spell under the description below the picture on the page titled “The Power of Victor”.
She then began to recite the words.
Suddenly a heavy breeze began to fill the room and the candle flames grew higher.
Starr continued to recite the words. Lauren was still shaking.
A spiritual presence then appeared out of thin air and began to circle around the table... a gray skeletal- like figure in the form of smoke, stretching its arms out.
Lauren screamed.
Will started to panic, but then went back to being calm, taking a deep breath.
Starr looked up in fascination for a brief second, then continued to recite the chant. She was about to read the last line of text.
“Okay, say this with me, alright?”
“Alright,” replied Will.
“Okay,” replied Lauren.
“Provide us the Power of Victor,” said Starr.
“Got it,” replied Will.
They then began to recite the last line of text together. “Provide us the Power of Victor... provide us the Power of Victor... provide us the Power of Victor...”
Will and Starr repeated the words at least two or three more times as the spiritual presence of what appeared to be the ghost of Victor continued to circle the table around them, Lauren staring in fright.
Lauren was still shaking, only saying “Provide us the power... provide us the power... provide us the power”.
Will and Starr said it one last time. “Provide us the Power of Victor.”
Suddenly a shock wave then shot into all three of their bodies. Will, Starr and Lauren were all shot back in their chairs.
The spirit had disappeared and the breeze had left the room. Everything went quiet.
Two seconds later Will opened his eyes slowly. “Is everyone okay?” he asked, still lying there on the floor.
“I’m okay,” replied Starr.
“Lauren?”
No reply from Lauren. A strange growl was heard though.
Will and Starr got up from the floor slowly, catching their breath, a feeling of power in both of them.
“What in the world?” spoke Will, who just noticed Lauren to have appeared to have changed into some sort of dark-gray monster with wings laying on the floor upon her clothes.
“She didn’t stay calm,” said Starr.
The monster then spread its wings and quickly turned its head to look at Will and Starr, grinning at them with its sharp razor-blade teeth and staring with her big beady eyes.
“What is that thing?!” cried Will.
Suddenly the creature rose into the air and faced Starr, ready to attack her.
Will thought quickly and grabbed the black V- shaped electric guitar propped up against the wall next to him as a defense weapon and held it out in front of him.
The guitar seemed to connect with him, a bit of power transferring from Will into the guitar.
The monster then attacked Starr, bringing her to the floor.
“No!” she cried.
Will then freaked out, and with the electric guitar he threw a powerful swing at Lauren, now a flying a hellion, leaving a deep gash in her back. Surprisingly the guitar was still intact.
Lauren then turned her head and snarled at Will. She attacked him, bringing him to the floor. Starr got back up in relief. “Swing, Will, swing!” she ordered.
Will continued to swing at the monster with the electric guitar. “Take that, you ugly--!”
With one final swing it backed off, broke through Starr’s bedroom window and flew out into the streets.
Starr went to help Will get back up onto his feet, still with the electric guitar in his hand.
Together they walked over to the broken bedroom window and looked out. The flying hellion Lauren has become continued to fly into the night sky, ready to look for victims to attack.
Once they could no longer see her, Will and Starr turned to each other.
“You saved my life,” said Starr.
It felt right at this moment. Will and Starr felt a sense of infatuation with each other. They kissed.
“Now let’s go kick some zombie butt!” exclaimed Will.
With that Will and Starr left the room and went off to defend the town, now with the Power of Victor, Will still with the electric guitar, and Starr having grabbed the Book of the Underground on their way out of the bedroom.
Chapter 24